Trade between Beijing and Kiev fell by another 31 percent compared to the same period last year. The PRC Customs Administration published statistics for January-June 2023, which follows the trade between the two cities. This drop in trade can be called a continuation of a long-established trend - by the end of 2022, this figure fell by 60 percent.
However, since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, it has been repeatedly said that Kiev does not consider China its adversary, despite its close ties with Moscow and Minsk.
“It is important for us that China does not choose the side of Russia. So that China, despite everything, has the opportunity to coincide with its historical wisdom. I count on it very much,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in November 2022, making it clear that so far his fears have not been realised.
In February 2023, Zelenskyy expressed a desire to see the chairman of the PRC.
“First of all, I plan to meet with Xi Jinping,” the President of Ukraine replied to a question about the efforts he is making to win over the neutral and pro-Russian countries to his side. “And I think it will be to the benefit of our states and security in the world. We have a large trade turnover with China. The question is not only in the war, the question is that we are a state that is interested in maintaining economic relations.”
However, the meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Xi Jinping has not yet taken place - instead, the leaders of African countries visited Ukraine, and they also hesitated on the issue of unilateral support for Russia or Ukraine.
Over the past year, Ukraine has been cautious in its statements regarding Taiwan. Reports of a potential Chinese military operation against Taiwan emerged in early February 2022, but Ukrainian media remained mostly neutral in their coverage. Some outlets mentioned the solidarity between Taiwan and Ukraine, as well as other post-Soviet countries opposing Russian influence. One such outlet, the "Fifth Channel," connected historical ties between Taiwan's first leader, Chiang Kai-shek, and Yaroslav Stetsko, an ally of Stepan Bandera, in 1954. Additionally, around 10 Taiwanese citizens were reported to be fighting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Despite these voices, the official stance of Ukraine is to support China's territorial integrity.
As a sinologist and author of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Mikhail Korostikov noted in an interview with TRT Russian that relations between China and Ukraine are generally maintained, but adjusted for objective circumstances.
“There is nothing supernatural about a 60 percent drop in trade,” the expert noted.
“In 2022, Ukraine’s trade as a whole sank by half, mainly due to the destruction of communications, especially seaports. China has left the first place in the list of trading partners, losing to Poland, but only because it has a land border with Poland. But in general, it must be said that in the pre-war period, trade relations between China and Ukraine developed very well”, adds Mikhail Korostikov.
“In 2021, China exported $9.8 billion worth of goods to Ukraine and imported $9.4 billion worth of goods from Ukraine. China accounted for about 15% of Ukraine’s foreign trade, and it was the main foreign trade partner if we take individual countries, and not the EU as a bloc. China is a major buyer of Ukrainian corn, barley, and sunflower oil,” explains Mikhail Korostikov.
As for politics, not economics, Mikhail Korostikov summarised: “China’s position in the conflict is interpreted by Kyiv as pro-Russian, but Zelensky does not aggravate relations with Beijing, because he understands that no matter how the conflict ends, Chinese investments will be very useful.”
